wfn.org | Rita Dixon Receives Edler G. Hawkins Award

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

1-April-1998 
98108 
 
    Rita Dixon Receives Edler G. Hawkins Award 
 
    by Julian Shipp 
 
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.-Described as "a committed sister with boundless energy 
and ideas," the Rev. Rita Louise Dixon was honored with the Edler G. 
Hawkins Award here on March 21 during the National Black Presbyterian 
Caucus (NBPC)'s 31st Annual Conference. 
 
    A noted Christian educator and ecumenist, Dixon is currently the 
associate for black congregational enhancement in the National Ministries 
Division (NMD). She was formerly staff associate for racial ethnic 
ministries with the General Assembly Mission Board of the PC(US), starting 
in 1979. She moved to Louisville and began working at the Presbyterian 
Center following Presbyterian reunion in 1983. 
 
    "I am deeply, deeply honored and words cannot  express to you how I 
feel now and how I felt when [NBPC president the Rev.] Curtis Jones called 
me and told me this was going to happen," an elated Dixon told the crowd 
attending the Hawkins banquet. "I almost went into a deep depression 
because I just never see myself this way and I certainly never think of 
myself in the same sense that I think of Edler Hawkins." 
 
    A noted Presbyterian ecumenist, urban pastor, civic and community 
leader, Edler G. Hawkins (1908-1977) was elected as the first 
African-American moderator of the Presbytery of New York City and in 1964 
was elected as the first African-American moderator of the General Assembly 
of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. 
 
    He also served as chair of the Commission on Religion and Race, the 
Council of Church and Race Relations of the United Presbyterian Church in 
the U.S.A., the Presbyterian Economic Development Corporation and the 
Witherspoon Development Corporation. 
 
    "However, I can acknowledge with joy that God has worked greatly 
through the ministry of the Office of Black Congregational Enhancement," 
Dixon said. "A lot of people have been involved in it, not just me. It's 
all the people who have contributed to this ministry. This office is really 
like a galvanizing center and it's the people throughout this church who 
have made it what it is." 
 
    Dixon holds a bachelor of arts degree with concentrations in 
mathematics, education and psychology from Spelman College and a master of 
science degree in mathematics from Atlanta University. She also holds a 
doctor of education degree from Harvard Divinity School and further 
graduate studies in the Ph.D. program in theological studies at Emory 
University in Atlanta, Ga. 
 
    Dixon has numerous publications to her credit and was responsible for 
the development of two curriculum programs: Exploring Childhood and 
Exploring Human Nature. She presently chairs the committee that will soon 
publish a resource on the church in Ethiopia. 
 
    Guest speaker at the awards banquet was Rep. Melvin Watt (D-N.C.), who 
took his text from author James H. Cone's book, "God of the Oppressed." 
Watt implored black Presbyterians not to allow the church to deal only with 
salvation, but to continue to concern itself with freedom, justice and 
equality issues. 
 
    "The fight for freedom and justice is no closer to being over than the 
fight for salvation - it is an ongoing struggle," Watt said. "In the black 
church, these two fights have been interwoven and integral throughout our 
history. We can't allow the black church to just deal with salvation. We 
need you to keep dealing with equality and justice and freedom for all of 
our peoples." 
 
    The recipient of this year's Lucy Craft Laney Award was Ethel Hawkins 
of Pine Bluff, Ark., a black Presbyterian philanthropist and educator. 
Hawkins, now 87, has donated more than $300,000 over the course of her life 
to various organizations, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
Foundation, Heifer Project International and her alma mater, Johnson C. 
Smith University, from which she graduated in 1936. Hawkins taught for 31 
years in Cabarrus and Rowan counties in North Carolina. She was married to 
the Rev. W.A. Hawkins, a Presbyterian pastor who died in 1957. 
 
    A noted Presbyterian educator, Laney (1855-1933) was instrumental in 
chartering the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in 1886, an 
African-American college preparatory and vocational school that benefitted 
hundreds of black students whose parents had been slaves only three decades 
before. Born in Macon, Ga. on April 13, 1855, Laney attended  Lewis High 
School, which later became Ballard Normal School. Upon graduation from 
Ballard, she entered Atlanta University as a member of the first class to 
be enrolled at the institution. 
 
    During the meeting, NBPC also installed its new officers, who will 
serve from 1998 to 2001. They are Eleanor Doty of Dallas, secretary, and 
the Rev. Patricia D. Mason of Roswell, Ga., representative at large. 
 
    NBPC also thanked the following outgoing board members for their years 
of service: Valerie Giles-Reynolds of Detroit, Mich., at-large 
representative; Romie Harris of St. Louis, Mo., Midwest representative; Dr. 
Thelma Adair of New York, N.Y., Northeast representative; Earl McLendon of 
Los Angeles, Calif., West representative; the Rev. James Mitcham Jr. of 
Winston-Salem, N.C., Mid-Atlantic representative; and Virginia 
Dowsing-Toliver of Rock Hill, Mo., secretary. 

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